HAPPINESS

 HAPPINESS

"Happiness does not come from happiness itself, but from the journey towards achieving it."  Finnish Proverb

Through observing my dogs, I have come to the conclusion that our dogs really are more on cue with self-care than most humans. Our Earth gives us so many ways to heal ourselves and to take care of ourselves, yet so many times we are too busy to take the time to notice this. 

For me, especially in the winter months, a cup of tea is such a sweet thing to do for myself. I just must take the time to do this once a day. It warms my very soul. Many times, it is when I finally take a moment to put my feet up and just breathe.... which by the way is another major observation of dog behavior. They obviously can't make a cup of tea, even if they wanted it, but they do love their little treats and notice the way they breathe. It is the correct way of breathing (just like an infant). The simplicity of full body breath affects everything within us from the spinal column, to our lungs and our nervous system. I have noticed that just as each of my dogs get ready for a little rest, they take a deep breath, sort of a deep sigh. From that point on they are breathing by inhaling and their belly moves up...exhaling takes it back down again. This oxygenates our bodies and stirs up the nerves throughout our system. It is the consistent care and attentiveness to one form of self care.

"Discipline provides a constancy which is independent of what kind of day you had yesterday and what kind of day you anticipate today." Jon Kabat-Zinn

We all need to acknowledge our small moments of accomplishments and think about what courage we had to achieve our goals. Enjoy it and relish in it. Every moment won't be perfect and that is ok. That's life. We can't have it all every moment. What I like to do is to think of all of the good things that I have and go for the gold. In other words, don't save the good dishes for special occasions only. We are special and we should enjoy using it for ourselves. One specific example I read about is that if you get a box of expensive organic dark chocolate cherries and only eat a few each day. Then later you discover the others have started to rot away. One must give freely and abundantly even to ourselves. I know that my dogs do this as a second nature. It seems that the moral here is that, "While we pursue happiness we flee from contentment." This is a Hasidic proverb which really hit home with me. 

Change is always inevitable. I am learning more to make do with what I have. It is enough. And it can be quite interesting. It can be a time to slow down and listen to the quiet.